Those Who Save Us
by sienna27
Summary: Clooney'verse, Story 1: Going into Christmas, the team deals with lingering issues from a bad case earlier in the month. Stand alone, but same universe (prequel) to It's All George Clooney's Fault. So, we have a new universe!
1. A Little Blonde Elf

**Author's Note**: I wanted to use some of my Christmas prompts (always do, but never have time) but had no ongoing universes that were on the cusp of the Christmas season. Then I remembered I wrote "It's All George Clooney's Fault," as a New Year's tale. Now that story is very, very, smutty, this one is not :) I'm just wandering back into that world because you know (if you've followed me forever) that I despise attempting to write stand alone fics. If I can't ground them in some world I've already spun for myself, it stresses me out. So this universe, for lack of a better tie-in, will be called, "The Clooney'verse" :)

All you need to know going in here, is that Emily and Hotch are involved, but not yet sleeping together. Otherwise, because I wanted to use as many prompts as possible, the style is more written as little 'vignettes,' pulling different team members into each segment. Consider the movie Love Actually, and let's pretend this is an homage to the style :)

**TV Bonus Challenge #47 - Santa's Got a Brand New Bag of Prompts**

Show: **The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet**

Challenge: **Decorating Dave's Office**

**A Little Blonde Elf**

"What are you doing?"

Hearing Hotch's booming voice bouncing into Dave's otherwise empty office, JJ spun around in surprise. She had a Santa hat on her head, a strand of twinkle lights around her neck, and a hunk of tinsel in her hand.

"Oh," her voice squeaked, "hey there, Hotch. You're in early."

Crap. It was barely even SEVEN!

"Yes," Hotch shifted his bag back on his shoulder as he took a step into Dave's office, "yes I am. As are you," he paused to let his gaze shift up and around the Winter Wonderland his Media Liaison was creating . . . it was like a Macy's window display, "apparently."

And after taking it all in, his eyes snapped back down to hers. Then he asked drily.

"Does Dave now that you're doing," he spun his finger around, "this?"

An educated guess, and over a decade of profiling other people's body language . . . JJ's eyes were like milk saucers . . . would say, no.

"Um, well," JJ stammered slightly while biting down her lip, "I guess the short answer would be," she winced, "no."

Seeing Hotch's eyebrow immediately inch up in that scary way that only Hotch's eyebrow could, she quickly added, "but I'm sure he won't mind. It's just," her expression softened, "you know he's been pretty down since Buffalo. I thought this might cheer him up a little."

God, did she hope it would cheer him up. He'd been withdrawn and depressed for the last two weeks. Starting in mid-October, a series of young women up in Buffalo had been abducted over a seven week period. Two of those young women had been from the same family.

Fraternal twins out clubbing together over Thanksgiving break.

When the team had been brought into the case, the first week in December, it had been to help search for those girls. And during that time, Dave had become very attached to their mother, Diane. A forty-three year old single mom. One who had no other family in the world besides her two missing daughters.

Dave made it his mission in life to get them back.

He swore to her that he would.

And though making promises for safe returns, was never a wise course of action in their line of work, at that point in the investigation, there had still at least been reason to hope. Because no bodies had been found yet. All nine of the women from the area were just officially listed as missing, likely abducted. No presumption yet of foul play. But Dave had this promise to that one mother, and they didn't want to let him down.

So the team worked the case like _their _lives depended on it.

And if it wasn't their actual lives in jeopardy, it was at the very least their souls. They put in seventeen hours a day, every day, for eight straight days before they got the big break. The UNSUB, a local bar back names Jeffrey Kroger, was identified definitively as their man.

Seven hours later he'd been captured, after a high speed chase through downtown Buffalo.

It was then another _nine hours_ of interrogation by Hotch and Morgan, before they'd gotten the confession. Until that moment, until Kroger opened his mouth, everyone had been so hopeful that the women . . . at least the twins, the last ones taken . . . might still be found alive.

So it had been absolutely devastating, when he'd had smiled that crocodile smile and said, "no, they're dead. I killed them all."

And he had. Every one. He led the team and the local detectives, out to a series of shallow graves out in the forest. There were so many bodies . . . more even than they'd known about, he'd been abducting from down state as well . . . that they'd had to divvy up the death notifications. Three each.

It was hell. And of course Dave had insisted on being the one to tell the twins' mother himself.

And it had killed him.

Everyone had their ups and downs with the cases, the ones that hit somebody harder than usual for whatever personal reasons. But this was as bad a reaction as JJ had ever seen in Rossi. So this, these silly strands of tinsel and lights, they were all that she could think to do to do for him.

Just bring him a little Christmas cheer.

And she could see that Hotch had been silently looking over the room, his jaw twitching slightly as he took in the tree, and the garland, and the bright red bows. After another moment he looked back at her, and she could see a faint, wistful, smile touch his lips.

"It's worth a shot," he said softly. "So," his head tipped slightly, "as you were."

He took a step back . . . and then he was gone.

For a second JJ stared into the open doorway. She really couldn't believe that he'd just given this idea his blessing. She'd thought for her that he would have told her to take it down. That's actually why she'd come in so early.

So she could get it all up before anybody could come in and tell her to stop.

But as she turned around to look at the little Charlie Brown Christmas tree she'd set up in the corner, she knew that she needed to hurry now. It was only half decorated, and if Hotch was already in this early, then that meant that Dave could be along anytime now too.

With the holidays, people were coming and going at all hours just so they could get stuff done.

So after taking another sip from her rapidly cooling Gingerbread latte, she started slowly separated the tinsel in her hand as she walked across the small room.

_She was going to Christmas this place up if it killed her!_

_A/N 2: Believe it or not (and my regular followers will not) I actually finished the second draft for the whole F'ing story, ALREADY! No, really! I'm going to try to be one of those people (waving to my pal Kavi) who can actually post a focused little Christmas tale on like a daily basis over the holidays. Yeah, I know, it seems like I'm setting us all up for MAJOR disappointment! But the chapters are short and mostly narrative, so let's try and keep a good thought that I can get it done. If I CAN, then in theory, the last chapter will be up for Christmas day, EST. So, hopefully you're all enjoying this little experiment (would love to hear from you if you are :)) and we'll convene here tomorrow night, same bat time, same bat channel! :)_


	2. A Weighted Soul

**Author's Note**: Yay! Second chapter! And it was an effort getting this up! I had unexpected company this afternoon, and then my mom called to tell me that she and my dad opened ALL of their Christmas presents early, which was like 'are you freaking kidding me?! So yeah, that was two more hours of my life.

So just one little segment here to keep moving things forward.

* * *

><p><span><strong>A Weighted Soul<strong>

Hotch walked into his office, and paused to snap on the light switch by the door.

It was so early in the morning, and so late in the season, that the only sunlight coming in through the windows, was a dark grey.

That was depressing by itself.

But as he stood there motionless, staring at his (unadorned) office space, he started to feel more depressed still. Even though everything was in its usual, tidy, professional state, it all seemed very bland now next to what JJ was swirling up next door.

Not that he had ever desired a tiny Christmas tree or flashing light strands in his office before, he actually would have shuddered at the thought, but at the moment they actually didn't seem like such a terrible idea. Because Dave wasn't the only that had been having a rough time since the Buffalo case. Even going into it, there had already been too many bodies that year. But for so many to die . . . fifteen young women, all between the ages of nineteen and twenty-five . . . all on their watch, and over the holidays no less, it had become another weight on the albatross he carried.

It was really starting to pull him down.

And as he walked over to his desk, he considered maybe asking Emily to lunch. And then he could (in passing), mention to her that he thought what JJ had done for Dave was nice. And he would just leave it at that. Because then Emily . . . his eyes crinkled slightly as he pictured her pretty face . . . his sweet Emily, well, she might take the non-hint, and do the same for him.

Because he would never do it for himself.

But she would. She'd do it in a heartbeat. And when he came in to see it he would pretend to bluster that wasn't what he had meant at all. And she would call him out on his crap, because that's what she always did. And then she'd shoot him that grin of hers, and he'd forget completely why it was that he'd even pretended to think that he should make it a thing to protest. Of course the pretend fighting though, the banter, that was something they did all the time. His lip quirked up as he walked across the room.

It was fun.

Hell, just being with Emily was fun.

They had been seeing each other off duty for some months now. It had started mid-summer with just a few dinners after work. And that had progressed to a movie once or twice a month. Then take-out over at her house.

And then home cooked meals over at his.

Then one day in September he'd introduced her to his son. And that was a big deal, a REALLY big deal, introducing her to Jack.

And he knew that she knew that too.

Because that Friday he'd asked her if she'd like to meet them at the zoo the next afternoon, she'd actually gotten choked up. Of course she'd tried to hide it from him, but he'd seen her eyes glistening when she tipped her head down and nodded. Though he hadn't been dating that much in the last few years, still, Emily was the first woman since the divorce who he'd wanted to share that part of his life with. He even had a picture on his fridge taken from that first day the three of them spent together.

It was Jack and Emily in the Reptile House.

Her silent scream at the boa constrictor just placed around her neck . . . his son's boisterous laughter at the faces she was making.

It was a good day.

And since then, they'd had a lot of other good days together. Some of them with Jack, but mostly just him and Emily alone. He wasn't sure if he would actually call what they were doing dating, exactly . . . but they were definitely something. There was hugging, and there was kissing. That was certainly 'date'like' behavior.

They still weren't sleeping together though.

It was the last step really in shifting them to whatever they were now . . . and Hotch's assessment there would have been to say, 'content' . . . to whatever they could be in the future.

The great unknown.

But given how badly he'd been hurt by Haley, he was still a bit scared about jumping back into the great unknown. That's why he hadn't been pushing them towards sex, as most men in his position would have been. But the progression in their relationship had all been so gradual, going from hand holding, to hugging then kissing, first on the cheek, and then last month (finally) on the mouth, that he hadn't really felt the 'urgency' for physical relations, that might have been expected in a more typical romantic relationship. Really, at first the time they spent together wasn't very romantic at all. She'd been coming off a bad breakup in the spring, and he'd been coming off a three month dry spell. They'd both just been lonely. Then one night he'd been walking by her desk on the way to the copy machine, and on the spur of the moment, he'd decided to ask her if she wanted to grab a bite to eat with him.

It was something to do.

She'd shrugged and said, "sure, what the hell." So the next week he asked her again. And that was really how it all began. Just as a way to fill in the empty spaces in their lives.

But it hadn't taken long before his feelings for her had begun to deepen. And as it was today, he now felt a warmth and tenderness for Emily, that he hadn't felt for anyone since well, probably Haley. And that would be Haley from long ago.

So even if what he felt for Emily wasn't quite love yet, they were getting there.

Yeah . . . he let out a soft sigh as he leaned down to turn on his computer . . . yeah, they were getting there. And as he again looked around in his office, feeling that heaviness once more pressing on his chest, he took a deep breath. Then he checked the time.

7:14 am

All right, if he got himself busy right now, then he would definitely have time to take Emily out to lunch later. And given how he was feeling at the moment, he was thinking that some quiet time with her was probably the only thing that was going to get him through the day. So after scrubbing his hand across his mouth, he dropped his fingers down on the keyboard.

_Time to get to work._

* * *

><p><em>AN 2: So again, just one character segment, but at least a snapshot of the H/P relationship at present. _

_Curious, writing this is sort of like writing Girl proper, where there I had the original Hours as a blueprint for some things that needed to be written in the prequel (Girl), here again I have an existing story that takes place at a later date, so I have to backtrack and flesh out the relationship here based on just a few 'fleeting' lines covered in "It's All George Clooney's Fault." The key point being, it's not a great all consuming love affair, or an immediate physical attraction, it's just been a slow burn that's on the cusp of sparking into something more._

_And thank you so much everyone for the reviews! And the support in my crazy little quest here to try out this daily posting thing! It's a bit stressful, but fun! Fingers crossed, I'll see you guys tomorrow. And next time around, we'll definitely check in with Dave and Emily :)_


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